I know - Its me again!

A delightful day here, bathed in sunshine with a slight breeze so I sat out back in the garden, stitching and listening to a magpie making mayhem in a nearby tree, squabble, squabble, on and on for ages!
Then 3 pigeons who have chosen to regularly eat the bird food I put out came, they were coming and going, arguing with eachother about which was going to sit on the feeder at any one time.
I wouldn't mind but they are fat enough for a tasty 'stoggy' pie already and it's the local sparrows I want to feed!

It's all go out back at times lol

But I had to marvel at some tulip bulbs I bought last autumn ...... I can quite see why the Dutch went tulip crazy way back in the 1600-1800s and bought the bulbs for huge sums of money and even traded bulbs for products and services.
It's an interesting comment on human nature, not least the Dutch back then!

https://www.history.com/news/tulip-mania-financial-crash-holland

Infact another of the yellow tulips has streaks of red on the petals,

  they look almost like old English roses . So pretty.

I follow a Facebook group (Beachcombing British Beaches), for the sheer joy of seeing what kind of things they find, though quite afew overseas members voyeur along too.

One of the guys is right wit and artist too, he makes humorous pieces of art with rubbish metals and flotsam and jetsam he finds.

He held a draw recently, with much pomp and ceremony, it went for days and days, for one of his much loved items and I won it.

I think there were maybe 5 of us in the draw lol 

So .. I present to you

'Yellow Duck on Blue Bridge on Wood with an 'Ole'

Max named it thus and so be it. 

I know your all envious aren't you!

Eat your heart out, he's mine!

Shows how easily pleased I am mind you doesn't it : )

 (I also follow Thames Mudlarkers on facebook and what they 

    find fair blows me away!)

Out of interest, that cats face to the right above was found in a ploughed field by my grandma when she was following the tractor and its attachment that upended whatever crop she was supposed to picking up behind it.

Solid brass, black bright it was then and Grandad cleaned it up, no idea really what it's for but she used to lay the hot end of the poker on it.

And at the back of the shelf, the round brass dragon plate?

I bought that when in Hong Kong way back, from a brass factory in Shatin.

I say factory ha! It was a corrugated roofed tin shack up on the hillside above what was then the river valley and is now the Shatin Racecourse.

My grandaughter likes to go to playcentres, you know, adventure playgrounds indoors for kids of varying ages, and the one nearby to me is called Kinderland.

I always take a book, crochet or stitching to do whilst there and this hexi cover began as simply calming hexi making with no real plan in mind. 

It is known as the Kinderland Lapquilt lol

I had wondered why folks using this diamond design only did them in a  vertical or horizontal layout, thought I'd try a diagonal approach.

Well, the reason they dont do it diagonally is probably because you get irregular edgings which makes it more hassle lol 

So here is my bodging a design having already started stitching them skew whiff, before the penny dropped it was going to make life difficult!

Do learn from my mistakes please ...

They are 1" hexis and whether my edging idea works is yet to be determined. I think I need another row of larger diamonds at least before I consider the top finished.

Yesterday I had an urge to make a sea scene and once again, without common sense or planning, I gathered bits n pieces together with a vague idea of layout. 

Common sense would have meant I stuck to a size that could be framed in a standard size frame and mount right?

But no, this is once again, non standard sigh ..  so framing it must wait a while.

I want to make afew stitchy pieces to give to a local dog rescue centre that is struggling at the moment and who do remarkable work homing Romanian dogs over here in the UK. 

I have given them afew things already which have been raffle and draw prizes or sold at the kennels.

Oakwood Dog Rescue, Hull and from where my next dog will be all being well, once the lockdown ceases. 

Infact I had just decided to sell my original early Mister Finch Swift for their fund raising when the lockdown occurred, so I can't auction it off or post it really while all this is going on.

I must have told you about Finchy before, an incredibly talented guy who uses recycled textiles, tea spoons and all manner of other things to make stunning creatures.

Swift was made to hang from the ceiling, although he was hung by his ring on the wall here beside my Finch Butterfly, which I am keeping.

But hung on the wall his beak was upside down and his belly in view head on lol 

(excuse the mess in the pics!)

Please treat yourself and watch this you tube clip showing Finchy's last exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which I went to see.

 It was utterly magical and here he talks you through the story.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mister+finch+The+Wish+Post+video&docid=608036883359531161&mid=5F11EAF63E6C85F8B80A5F11EAF63E6C85F8B80A&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Enjoy!